Twelve passengers on a cruise ship in Gibraltar suffered minor injuries when a towering fuel tank nearby burst into flames. Two welders who had been working on the tank were also injured, one critically, AP reports. The ship, Royal Caribbean’s Independence of the Seas , sailed away from the burning tank…
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Social care minister asks regulator to investigate after BBC programme revealed systematic abuse at Winterbrook View unit in Bristol The government has ordered a review of the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) failure to investigate a whistleblower’s account of the systematic abuse that left vulnerable people to face months of physical and verbal abuse at a Bristol care home. Paul Burstow, the social care minister, has asked the regulator to investigate similar services to the Winterbourne View unit, in Hambrook, near Bristol, where a culture of abuse prevailed despite tip-offs from staff and repeated inspections – the role of the CQC, which is the sector regulator, and the local authority. A committee of MPs will also question CQC chiefs over their responsibilities. Stephen Dorrell, the chair of the Commons health committee, said a scheduled hearing with CQC bosses on 22 June will now focus on the organisation’s failings in the case. The systematic abuse of residents in the unit was documented by an undercover cameraman and broadcast on the BBC’s Panorama on Tuesday. Staff pinned residents to the floor and forced one into the shower fully dressed and then outside until she shook from cold. Residents were slapped and taunted, and one was teased about a suicide attempt. Experts told the programme what they had seen amounted to “torture”. Immediately after the broadcast, four of the staff were arrested. The Commons health committee will also launch a more wide-ranging inquiry into the commissioning of social care in the autumn. The inquiry will examine how the state provides care facilities for the elderly and vulnerable adults, including the current crisis with major care provider Southern Cross , which has slashed its rent payments in an effort to keep its 750 residential homes running. The future care of 31,000 elderly residents is in jeopardy if the firm collapses. The prime minister’s official spokesman said: “We are talking about a specific case that is clearly very shocking. Paul Burstow has asked the regulator to undertake a series of inspections of similar services and a thorough examination of the roles of both the CQC and local authorities in this case. “What we need to do is look at the circumstances surrounding this particular case. Clearly, there have been failures in this case, and we need to look at that before drawing any conclusions.” He added that the government was “monitoring very carefully” the situation with Southern Cross. Dorrell told the Guardian that the inquiry would look broadly at the commissioning process, saying: “The questions will be about how can these stories of abuse arise. “There was Panorama yesterday, but also the report last week on care of the elderly in NHS hospitals, all the issues around Southern Cross and the CQC in particular. “We are talking about 70% of patient load of the health service that is people with long-term needs and conditions, and so often we focus on waiting times for elective operations. This is a far bigger issue.” Responding specifically to the situation at the Bristol care home, he said: “I do think, in general, these services are better than they were a generation ago. “But there are still far too many failures. We have to address the reason for those failures. 30 years ago, the majority of this care was provided in large long-stay institutions which were themselves open to incidences of abuse. The vast majority are better now, but there are too many cases where it falls down.” Dorrell said he would be asking how the commissioning of such services worked. Castlebeck, the firm behind Winterbourne View, was charging more than £3,000 per resident a week. “One of the groups of people with difficult questions to answer arising out of the specifics of this situation is the people who authorised the expenditure of that money,” he added. “Someone had to sign the cheque that the care home operator was being paid to provide a service of £3,000 per week. I presume the majority of those cases were paid for with public funds. The people who signed the cheque have a duty to make certain that standards are of an adequate nature.” The CQC and Castlebeck both issued full apologies for their respective failings over the Winterbourne View unit. The government has commissioned the economist and broadcaster Andrew Dilnot to conduct a wide-ranging inquiry into the funding of care and support for elderly and disabled adults. He is due to report in July. The autumn inquiry by the health committee in the Commons will focus on his findings as well as the specific cases highlighted by the Panorama programme, Southern Cross and the recent report by the CQC on the lack of care for the elderly in hospitals. The prime minister’s spokesman said there had been discussions between Southern Cross and the Department of Health “for some time” over contingency funding planning. Asked about financial support in the light of council funding constraints, the prime minister’s spokesman said Southern Cross, landlords and those with a stake in the business needed to put in place a plan to ensure the company was on a firm footing. “That process is happening,” he said. “Our role is to ensure we keep in close contact with what is going on and keep monitoring that situation, and we will do what we need to do to ensure there is protection for anyone affected by this.” On the issue of bailout, he insisted the government would make sure “there is protection in place”, adding: “It may well not be in the interest of residents to move them, it may well be in their interest to keep them in the same place. “But we have to look at that very carefully … our interest is to make sure these people are cared for effectively.” Health policy House of Commons Liberal-Conservative coalition Long-term care Social care Disability Health Polly Curtis Hélène Mulholland guardian.co.uk
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Figures from Bank of England show number of loans for house purchase at a four-month low, while consumers’ appetite for borrowing remains limited The number of loans approved for house purchase fell by 4% to a four-month low of 45,166 in April – the lowest figure for that month since records began in 1992, according to the Bank of England . Some economists blamed the low figure on the bank holidays and the royal wedding, but others said they are evidence of a continuing depression in the housing market. Loan approvals for remortgages also fell – by 10% to 28,091 in April compared to 31,201 in March, and down 20.8% on the 35,501 loans approved in February. While gross lending secured on dwellings rose marginally to £11.2bn compared to £11.1bn in March, the Bank of England also said net mortgage lending was just £0.7bn in April, up from £0.5bn in March but low compared to long-term norms. Howard Archer, chief economist at IHS Global Insight , said the Bank figures indicated that tough conditions remain for the housing sector: “Mortgage approvals have actually averaged around 90,000 a month since 1993, while a level of 70,000-80,000 has in the past been considered consistent with stable house prices. “The relapse in mortgage approvals in April from an already low level reinforces our belief that modest falls in house prices are more probable than not over the coming months.” Brian Murphy from independent mortgage brokers Mortgage Advice Bureau was unsurprisingly more bullish: “The raft of bank holidays and the royal wedding inevitably skewed the April data, so an overall drop in the number of loan approvals and remortgages comes as no surprise. The nation went on holiday. “During May, activity bounced back and returned to the steady growth trajectory of February and March – albeit one that is naturally still at historically low levels. The ongoing drop in the number of remortgages reflects how people increasingly believe an interest rate rise is unlikely in the short term and that, if one does come, rates overall will remain very low for the foreseeable future.” April figures from the Building Societies Association (BSA), also released today, show gross lending by mutuals falling to £1.66bn from £1.74bn in March, though the April figure is a significant increase of 19% on the £1.4bn advanced in the same month in 2010. Adrian Coles, director-general of the BSA, said the year-on-year increase reflects a decision by mutuals at the start of the year to lend more: “We have come through the recession and are well-placed after two difficult years. We want to lend more. First-time buyers think they cannot afford to buy, but mutuals’ pricing has improved now and there are attractive products out there.” Meanwhile, the Financial Services Consumer Panel (FSCP) today outlined its six point plan for a “sustainable and healthy mortgage market”. It wants to see the Financial Services Authority’s Mortgage Market Review include, among other things, effective regulation to help consumers; regulatory policy to take account of wider social and economic implications; and lenders being required to judge affordability and suitability for individual consumers. Adam Phillips, chair of the FSCP, said: “Over the last few years we have seen some reckless lending by banks. Stronger regulation is undoubtedly needed to stamp out bad behaviour. However, there is a need for a balanced approach which takes full account of the social implications of any change.” Limited consumer appetite The Bank of England also announced that consumer credit rose by £0.5bn in April compared to the previous six-month average increase of £0.4bn. Credit card lending rose £0.3bn while other loans and advances rose £0.2bn. As in previous months, consumer appetite for taking on new borrowing appears to be limited while people remain keen to reduce their debt. This is borne out by statistics from the BSA which show savings held with mutuals increased by £1.5bn in April compared to an increase of £0.9bn in the same month of 2010. Coles said: “The significant inflow of funds into savings accounts during April was helped particularly by strong deposits into Isa accounts compared to April last year. “However, it will be difficult for deposit takers to maintain a positive inflow of funds this year given the squeeze on household finances. The added competition from state-backed NS&I [products] could also make attracting funds more challenging.” Mortgages Property Banks and building societies Borrowing & debt Mortgage lending figures Housing market Bank of England Mark King guardian.co.uk
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National disease control centre reports spike in cases of people suffering symptoms of bacterial contamination The number of people reported sick in Germany from a foodborne bacterial outbreak that has already killed 16 spiked over the last 24 hours, with nearly 100 more people suffering from severe and potentially fatal symptoms, according to the national disease control centre said. Agriculture minister Ilse Aigner said scientists were trying to find the source of the unusual strain of the E coli bacteria that is believed to have been spread in Europe on tainted vegetables – and where in the chain from farm to grocery store the contamination occurred. “Hundreds of tests have been done and the responsible agencies … have determined that most of the patients who have been sickened ate cucumbers, tomatoes and leaf lettuce and primarily in northern Germany,” Aigner said on ARD television. “The states that have conducted the tests must now follow back the delivery path to see how the cucumbers, or tomatoes or lettuce got here.” German authorities initially pointed to a few cucumbers from Spain, but further tests showed that those vegetables, while contaminated, did not cause the outbreak. Officials are still warning all Germans to avoid eating raw cucumbers, tomatoes or lettuce. E coli is found in large quantities in the digestive systems of humans, cows and other mammals. It has been responsible for a large number of food contamination outbreaks in a wide variety of countries. In most cases, it causes non-lethal stomach ailments. But enterohemorrhagic E coli (EHEC), causes more severe symptoms, ranging from bloody diarrhea to the rare hemolytic uremic syndrome. Germany’s national health agency, the Robert Koch Institute, said 470 people are now suffering from the syndrome, or HUS, in which E coli infection attacks the kidneys, sometimes causing seizures, strokes and comas. That is up from 373 reported Tuesday. Germany typically sees a maximum of 50 to 60 HUS cases in a year. An additional 1,064 cases of EHEC have been reported in Germany since the beginning of May, up from 796 the day before, the Robert Koch Institute said. The World Health Organisation said cases of EHEC have been reported in nine European countries: Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK. All but two cases are either people in Germany, or people who had recently travelled to northern Germany, the organisation said. Robert Tauxe, a foodborne disease expert at the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said it was extraordinary to see so many cases of the kidney complication from a foodborne illness. “There has not been such an outbreak before that we know of in the history of public health.” He added that the strain of E coli in the European outbreak has not been seen in the US, where there have been several high-profile foodborne outbreaks in recent years, but none with such a high death toll. There is little precedent in Europe, either. In 1996, an E coli outbreak in the UK caused 216 cases and 11 deaths. The WHO said 86% of those sickened in the current outbreak were adults, and two-thirds were women. It said it was unusual that more children were not affected. E coli Health Germany Europe Spain guardian.co.uk
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Fprty-one killed as divisions in military become more pronounced as government troops clash with defectors and rebels At least 41 people have been killed in shelling and street battles between government forces and opposition fighters, amid growing signs of disarray in President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s military. Fighting raged until 5 a.m, and witnesses said Presidential Guard units shelled the headquarters of an army brigade responsible for guarding sensitive government institutions. Army officers who have defected to the opposition say the government suspected the brigade commander was about to join forces with the movement to oust Saleh. Opposition army officers, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with army rules, said the armoured brigade commander, Brigadier-General Mohammed Khalil, was neutral and without political affiliation but had apparently angered Saleh. The 41 dead included combatants from both sides of the conflict, said the medical officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The fighting engulfed the Hassaba neighborhood that contains the family compound of influential opposition tribal leader Sheik Sadeq al-Ahmar , and to the north of that district where Republican Guard units protect Saleh’s former residence. The units, led by one of Saleh’s sons, and special forces wearing uniforms of government security troops attacked but failed to recapture the Hassaba administrative building from tribal gunmen. On Tuesday, Saleh imposed collective punishment on the Hassaba neighborhood by cutting water supplies and electricity. A resident who lives close to the fighting and would only give his first name, Zaher, said columns of smoke and fire billowed from Khalil’s brigade headquarters and explosions could be heard. Several ambulances were seen ferrying injured people to the al-Gomhuria general hospital, Zaher said. Al-Ahmar tribesmen were seen on Wednesday morning around the office of the prosecutor general in the Shamlan neighborhood, west of the capital. They were accompanied by two armoured vehicles from the 1st Armored Division which defected to the opposition two months ago. There was also fighting for the first time in the Hada neighborhood, a stronghold for Saleh supporters in the south of the capital. The interior ministry said in a statement that tribesmen had taken over a five-story building there after clashing with the army. Yemen Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Haleh Sahabi, daughter of veteran dissident Ezatollah Sahabi, reportedly clashed with security forces The daughter of a prominent veteran Iranian dissident has died after reportedly scuffling with security forces at his funeral. Haleh Sahabi, 54, also an opposition activist and women’s rights campaigner, had been allowed out of prison to attend the funeral of her father, Ezatollah Sahabi, on Wednesday. She fell to the ground in the scuffle and died of a cardiac arrest, according to the opposition website Kaleme. The semi-official Fars news agency confirmed Sahabi’s death but denied there had been a clash with police and accused the opposition movement of seeking to politicise the incident. “Fars reporters present at the funeral service said there was no clash between the mourners and security forces,” it said. Alireza Janeh, head of security matters at the Tehran governor’s office, said there were no clashes and that Sahabi had died of heart problems exacerbated by stress and hot weather at his funeral. Sahabi’s death is likely to anger women’s rights campaigners and supporters of Iran’s opposition movement whose massive street protests after the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 were crushed by the government and whose leaders have been put under house arrest. Sahabi was arrested during the post-election crackdown and was given a two-year jail sentence. “Security forces tried to interfere in the carrying of the body, she objected and security forces confronted her and other people present,” Kaleme said, adding that Sahabi was pushed to the ground. Another opposition site, Sahamnews, said security forces punched her in the stomach. Kaleme said she was holding a picture of her father to her chest and fell when security forces tried to take it from her. “She fell and did not get up,” it said. Prominent opposition figures and former moderate officials attended the ceremony in the north-eastern Tehran suburb of Lavasan for Ezatollah Sahabi, who was jailed both before and after the 1979 Islamic revolution and spent a total of 15 years in prison. Iran Middle East guardian.co.uk
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Insolvency practitioner Stephen Hunt said first payment was rejected but he was given second chance days later Hundreds of thousands of people may have missed out on their chance to experience the Olympics first hand, but one man has won £11,000 worth of tickets after bidding on a total of £36,000 worth. Stephen Hunt, an insolvency practitioner, said he had surpassed his credit limit and did not have the available funds to pay for the tickets. “My assumption was, based on the rules, that I would get nothing,” he told the Today programme. He received an email telling him the payment of £11,000 had been rejected but he would be given a “second chance” if he could have funds available in a couple of days. Otherwise he would lose all of the tickets. “I had this horrible choice on Monday, either I had none or I [spent] £11,000,” he said. The amount was about double the figure he wanted to spend but after talking to his wife they decided to increase their credit limit. According to Olympic ticketing rules ticketholders can sell tickets to family and friends but have to be present as the lead booker. Hunt suggested that as an insolvency practitioner it was likely to be the first time in his career that he was popular. “I’d rather scrimp and save for a bit extra rather than be disappointed and I’ve seen so many people who have bid a relatively normal amount of money and not been successful.” Speaking to the programme after bidding £36,000, he told presenter John Humphrys that he thought he chances of getting even one ticket were small. “Really?” asked Humphys. “I think so, I hope so,” replied Hunt. Organisers have confirmed that unlike Hunt, at least 250,000 people have been left without tickets and will have to scramble on a first-come, first-served basis for seats at less popular events such as handball and basketball in a “second chance” sale. People are still in the dark about which tickets they have bought and will only hear which events they have qualified for by 24 June. Those left ticketless will be contacted by email and offered an “exclusive window” later this month to buy tickets for events where demand was relatively low. The demand for Olympics tickets was overwhelming, with 20m applications from 1.8 million people for the 6.6m tickets available to the public via the controversial ballot. More than 1m bids alone poured in for tickets to the opening ceremony and the men’s 100m final. A typical applicant received fewer than a third of the tickets requested – they have now had the money debited from their accounts. The remaining tickets will mostly be for ball games in big stadiums, such as football, volleyball, handball, basketball and hockey. Sessions in smaller arenas, such as the popular 6,000-seat velodrome, have almost sold out. It is expected that some people who were successful in the ballot will have had their payments rejected over the past week. More than 100 applicants had their purchases declined after a mistake by Barclaycard in which the transactions were flagged as suspicious. There will be frustration and anger from some who failed to get tickets after it emerged that at some events 50% of the tickets will go to sponsors and officials. Organisers say in total only 8% of the 8.8m tickets have been set aside for sponsors. Officials refuse to say how many of the tickets for the opening ceremony have been reserved for VIPs. “All we are able to say at this stage is that there are as many tickets at £20.12 as there are at £2,012,” said a spokeswoman. Two million tickets to the Paralympics will go on sale from 9 to 30 September. Only after that process has been completed will any unsold tickets to the Olympics go on general sale to the public, probably in early December. Olympic Games 2012 Alexandra Topping Patrick Collinson Fiona Walsh guardian.co.uk
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Former commander faces charges of crimes against humanity, including massacre of 7,000 Muslims at Srebrenica The former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic will be arraigned on 11 charges including genocide and crimes against humanity on Friday morning, judges at the international criminal tribunal for the former Yugoslavia have announced. The former commander of the Bosnian Serb army faces accusations that forces under his command massacred over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys in Srebrenica in July 1995. The indictment also alleges his troops tortured, mistreated and physically, psychologically and sexually abused civilians confined in 58 detention facilities in 22 municipalities. Mladic is also facing charges for the shelling and sniping of Sarajevo, during which thousands of civilians were killed and wounded. The announcement of his arraignment came after Mladic spent his first night in the United Nations detention unit in a seaside suburb of the Dutch capital. He was flown from Serbia on Tuesday afternoon and was taken under police escort into a isolation cell at dusk where he underwent a medical examination. Mladic, 69, will be asked to enter pleas on all charges relating to his alleged masterminding of atrocities throughout the 1992 – 1995 Bosnian war. The tribunal has appointed Judge Bakone Justice Moloto of South Africa, Judge Christoph Flügge from Germany and Judge Alphons Orie from the Netherlands to preside over the trial. If Mladic complies with the schedule, his arraignment on Friday could bring him into the same court building as his superior during the Bosnian war, Radovan Karadzic. The former Bosnian Serb president is currently on trial for similar charges. On Wednesday, Karadzic was in court dressed in a smart black suit and crisp white shirt and followed his case closely on two computer monitors. He looked relaxed, yawned and itched his nose. His trial has already been under way for 18 months and observers at the court point out they are not even halfway through the evidence. Before he left Serbia, Mladic’s lawyer, Milos Saljic, insisted he was not well enough physically or mentally to stand trial. He tried to slow the proceedings by sending his appeal by post at the last possible moment on Monday, but Serbia’s war crimes court rejected it almost as soon as it arrived on Tuesday. Ratko Mladic War crimes United Nations International criminal court Serbia Bosnia and Herzegovina Robert Booth guardian.co.uk
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Actor bought fake Heinrich Campendonk painting in biggest art forgery scandal in Germany’s history The actor Steve Martin has found himself caught up in the biggest art forgery scandal in German history after it emerged he bought a painting “by” German-Dutch modernist Heinrich Campendonk, which turned out to be a fake. Martin purchased the piece, Landscape With Horses, in 2004 from a Parisian gallery. He has since resold it and told the New York Times earlier this week that he is not yet certain if he is liable to compensate the buyer. “The gallery that sold me the picture has promised to be responsible to me, if I’m responsible, but it’s still unclear,” Martin, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, told the Arts Beat art blog. “It wasn’t clear that it was a fake until after Christie’s had sold the picture – it was a long time after that, that it became known.” The actor, a long-term art aficionado who has referenced his passion in films such as LA Story, added that the forgers “were quite clever in that they gave it a long provenance and they faked labels, and it came out of a collection that mingled legitimate pictures with faked pictures”. Martin’s purchase – he paid $850,000 and sold the painting for a loss at $500,000 to a Swiss businesswoman in 2006 – is just one of many believed to have been faked by a German forgery gang arrested by police last year. Alleged mastermind Wolfgang Beltracchi, his wife Helene, her sister Jeanette and accomplice Otto Schulte-Kellinghaus are accused of selling 44 of the paintings over the past decade. They include fakes of early 20th-century works by Campendonk, Max Pechstein, Max Ernst and several others. The paintings are said to have been excellent forgeries, fooling a number of experts in the art field. The forgery gang invented backstories for most of them, suggesting they were part of two collections saved during the Nazi years: one from Helene and Jeanette’s grandfather, Werner Jagers, the other from Schulte-Kellinghaus’s grandfather, a tailor named Knops. Several of the paintings ended up in French galleries, including Cazeau-Béraudière, where Martin made his purchase. An expert had supposedly confirmed the piece’s authenticity prior to the actor handing over his money. Steve Martin Germany Art Painting Ben Child guardian.co.uk
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Here are the shots that best capture May’s urban theme. Click through our gallery to see which photograph judge Natalie Mayer picked to win a £200 Point101 voucher, and a chance of winning the grand prize of a photographic safari to South Africa with &Beyond
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